Pulitzer_ A Life in Politics, Print, and Power - James McGrath Morris [39]
The trial was still months away, and so was the fall political season. In the interim, Pulitzer returned to Hungary for the first time since he had left six years earlier. To obtain a U.S. passport, he once again lied about his age, moving his birth back two years to conform to his previous deceptions. With the $410 that he had earned for his service in the legislative session, he booked passage out of New York on the Allemannia, the same ship that had brought Albert to the United States, and sailed to Europe on May 24. Pulitzer’s return to his native land was a heady experience. The penniless teenager who had left in 1864 came back to his family and friends as a twenty-three-year-old American lawmaker with money in his pocket. He used his status to open new doors—calling, for instance, on the mayor of Buda, Ferenc Házmán, who, after years of work, was nearing his goal of uniting Buda and Pest into one city.
By mid-July, Pulitzer was back in Missouri and deep in electoral politics. On August 25, 1870, he ran the Fifth Ward Republican meeting at Wolbrecht’s Tivoli Concert Hall and was selected as one of the delegates for the coming state convention. There was trouble brewing for the Republican governor, Joseph McClurg. At Pulitzer’s meeting, the delegates decided not to support McClurg’s renomination as governor. In fact, it was a bad night throughout St. Louis for the incumbent governor. When all the ward meetings had concluded their business, McClurg won no support whatsoever. Instead, all of St. Louis’s delegates lined up behind the reformist B. Gratz Brown.
A former U.S. senator and Free Soil Democrat who had worked to end his party’s pro-slavery position, Brown was winning favor with Republicans who wanted to restore the vote to former rebels. Pulitzer and his friend William Grosvenor, who edited the Missouri Democrat, threw their lot in with Brown. Pulitzer’s German readers were already on board, but Grosvenor’s editorials in favor of Brown emboldened moderate English-speaking Republicans who were growing weary of their party’s extremism, which for many appeared to be sustained by hate. In addition, the clamor for reforming the civil service and the tariff was gaining strength among moderate Republicans, who had an economic interest in a growing economy as well as efficient, honest urban governments.
Radicals were quick to perceive the danger posed by these “Liberal Republicans.” They were called heretics, and party operatives warned President Grant that he would have to put down this Missouri rebellion politically, just as he had ended the Southern rebellion militarily.
Five days following the city ward meetings, Pulitzer, Senator Schurz, and Grosvenor went to Jefferson City for the Republican state convention. At the capitol, more than 700 delegates crowded into the House chamber, which was regularly used by other groups when the legislature was not in session, and even for religious services on Sundays. This, however, was no church meeting. Within twenty-four hours the Liberals mounted their attack and turned McClurg’s hoped-for political coronation into chaos.
The initial confrontations developed when a resolution came to the floor supporting the suffrage amendments on the fall ballot that would immediately remove all voting disqualifications. Seeking to avoid an immediate, divisive vote, the resolutions were referred to the resolutions committee chaired by Schurz. The committee, by a slim majority, returned to the hall with an endorsement of the proposal.
“Upon this question,” proclaimed Schurz, “we cannot yield.” The delegates, however, yielded and defeated the motion on a vote of 439 to 342.